Last week’s post spoke of the lighthouse. They have always been so symbolic to me….lights shining in the darkness, guiding lost and storm tossed souls. There is a hymn in the LDS Hymnbook, #335, entitiled “Brightly Beams Our Father’s Mercy”.
Apparently, to mariners who depend upon lighthouses to find their way, there are lower lights upon the shore that help to direct ships into a proper channel to reach the shore safely. Without them, there is just the lighthouse, the final destination, but of no real help to navigate the reefs and shoals that may lie near a safe harbor.
The first verse reads as follows:
Brightly beams our Father’s mercy
From the lighthouse evermore,
But to us he gives the keeping
Of the lights along the shore.
Let the lower lights be burning;
Send a gleam across the wave.
Some poor fainting, struggling seaman
You may rescue, you may save.
It is easy to be so tired, so discouraged. Problems are so prevalent around us, and our meager efforts seem so futile. Perhaps it would do us well to reflect upon times when we have been in need of encouragement; when our souls have been sinking, and then we have been rescued by some small act of love–maybe just a hug, or a phone call, or a listening ear. Let us not let our lower lights dim. Keep them shining, keep them bright, and, be assured, someone is going to see and be rescued.
